


Server Reset

by scienceblues



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Getting Together, Implied/Referenced Genyatta, M/M, Online Friendship, flight rising - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-26
Updated: 2018-03-26
Packaged: 2019-04-13 11:50:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14111733
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/scienceblues/pseuds/scienceblues
Summary: Three and a half weeks later, Hanzo had a friend request and a message from an unknown user. Their activity page was empty except for the badge that showed they had designed their first dragon, and the message just said:You didn’t tell me you could pick what they look like!!!AKA: the McHanzo Flight Rising AU no one asked for.





	Server Reset

**Author's Note:**

> Flight Rising AU is meant in the sense that it's in a modern setting where Hanzo has been into the concept since it was announced. He backed the kickstarter. He spends real money on gems. He is VERY INTO HIS DRAGONS, guys.
> 
> (This is so stupid oh god who let me do this)
> 
> Background knowledge on FR shouldn't be too important to understanding this! I'm a super casual FR user, and absolutely 0% of this is supposed to be taken seriously, in case you couldn't already tell. (Set before always-open registration because they announced it as I was writing this and I didn't FEEL like redoing that bit.)
> 
> This was originally gonna be my day 2 (AU) entry for Peapod McHanzo week back in January, but then it uh. Grew. I figured if I was gonna write something as ridiculous as this in the first place, I might as well go all out with it!

The door banged open thirty seconds into Hanzo’s internal debate over whether or not he should get up to open the door for his brother, who, apparently, was having some difficulty with the finer details of how keys worked.

“Hanzoooooo!” Genji called, already breezing past Hanzo to his bedroom. “We’re going out. Want to come?”

“Where to?” Hanzo asked, eyes still on his laptop screen. Much easier to pretend to consider the question when Genji wasn’t even in the same room.

“I think the plan was to pick a bar when we get downtown,” came a voice that _was_ in the same room, and was decidedly _not_ Genji’s.

Hanzo looked up, startled out of his trance by the fact that someone had made it into the room without him noticing. One of Genji’s work friends - the one with the cowboy hat, Jesse - was standing in the entrance to their shared apartment, shutting and locking the door behind him. Hanzo knew him well enough from other similar nights after Genji got off work at the bar that he didn’t feel obligated to go beyond nodding in understanding, briefly exchanging hellos, and turning back to his laptop while Jesse settled down onto the opposite end of the couch to wait.

Years of sharing living space with his brother let Hanzo tune out the noise of hangers being rattled around in the closet and the medicine cabinet’s door opening and closing in rapid succession. Beyond checking out of the corner of his eye that Jesse was thoroughly occupied with his phone, and therefore didn’t need any attention from Hanzo, he was content to let him be.

Ten minutes after Genji’s disappearance, Jesse put his phone down and sank back further into the old couch with a quiet chuckle. “‘Quick stop to change,’ my ass. Don’t know why I always fall for it.”

“You should see what the floor of his room looks like when he’s finally ready,” Hanzo agreed absently. “And the floor of the bathroom. And at least one rejected outfit usually migrates into my room, as well.”

Another minute spent in comfortable silence, during which Jesse shuffled his legs into a more comfortable position, checked his phone again, and then sighed gustily. “So.”

“Hmm?”

“What, uh.” Looking up, Hanzo saw Jesse gesturing towards him, where the laptop screen was carelessly angled away from his corner of the couch. The avatars on the screen continued to cheerfully bob up and down, waiting for Hanzo to continue playing. “What’re you up to?”

Resisting the urge to snatch the screen back in defense, Hanzo forced himself to keep looking in Jesse’s direction. “A game.”

“What kind?” Apparently keeping the laptop where it was meant Jesse felt welcome to scoot half a cushion closer on the couch, peering intently at the screen. A delighted grin unfurled on his face when he got a closer look at the bouncing avatars. “Are those–?”

“Dragons, yes,” Hanzo admitted grudgingly.

“And they’re fightin’ those dolphins?”

“Yes.”

“So...like Pokémon, then?”

That was enough to startle a small laugh out of Hanzo. He himself had realized the similarities between his two favorite forms of stress relief only a few hours into his first foray into the Coliseum. “Yes, this part is,” he said. “Most of the rest focuses on breeding your dragons to get the colors or breeds that you want, however.”

Jesse was still peering at the screen intently, taking it all in rather than teasing like Hanzo expected. “The dolphins are awful cute to be fightin’ them, though.”

“One of the things I’ve never understood about this website,” Hanzo said, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. “In this minigame, you fight all sorts of made-up creatures. But you can also essentially make them your dragons’ pets, so I’m not certain whether they are supposed to be friendly or not. Most are drawn to look cute for when you pair them up with your dragons.”

Jesse’s eyes crinkled warmly at that, but his reply was cut off by Genji’s sudden appearance next to the couch, keys swinging from one finger.

“Do you want to talk to my brother all night or are you ready to go?” He squinted suspiciously at them. “What are you two talking about, anyway?”

“Badmouthin’ you,” Jesse said easily, standing and moving towards the door, ready to go. “That’s what happens when you spend twenty minutes fixin’ your eyeliner.”

Genji _did_ roll his eyes at that, making Hanzo glad he’d restrained himself earlier.

“Okay, keys, wallet – oh shit, my jacket,” Genji said, sprinting back to his room.

Jesse huffed out a laugh and took his hand off the doorknob, wandering back towards the couch to wait. With a nod down at the laptop, he said, “You’ve been hard at work just about every other time I’ve been over here. If that’s what you spend some of your free time on, it must be fun. I’ll have to check it out when I get back tonight.”

“You can’t.”

The easy smile on Jesse’s face froze for a second before he tilted his head consideringly. Hanzo closed his eyes, mortified at what that sounded like. “I mean – the site is only open for new user registration for one week out of the month. It just closed.”

Jesse’s stance eased up, and he tilted his hat at Hanzo. “Well, thanks for the tip. I’ll have to keep an eye on the date.”

A brief surge of irritation rushed through Hanzo – why did people insist on saying things they did not mean? – but he pushed it aside long enough to wave as his brother led the way out the door.

Three and a half weeks later, Hanzo had a friend request and a message from an unknown user. Their activity page was empty except for the badge that showed they had designed their first dragon, and the message just said: _You didn’t tell me you could pick what they look like!!!_

 

* * *

 

The messages continued to flood his inbox.

Truthfully, Hanzo didn’t spend very much time on the site. A few minutes here and there – in the morning, to feed and gather, and then periodically throughout the day to swap out items in the cauldron, if he remembered. He typically set aside an hour or so every few days for Coliseum grinding, as well. He wasn’t much for the social aspects of the site, so he had no need to spend time trawling the forums.

 _Occasionally_ he played fairgrounds games for the easy treasure, but he had weathered too many game requests from Genji on social media before he deleted his accounts entirely, so most of the time it was difficult to look at the games on offer without cringing.

But more often than not, the novelty of having messages in his inbox caught his attention whenever he pulled up the page.

_ <<You still got your starters? _

_ >Yes? They’re the first two listed on my page. _

_ <<WAIT HOW DID YOU GET IMPERIALS _

_ >Breed change scrolls were one of the rewards for backing the site before it launched. _

_ <<Aw well I guess that makes sense to make sure they match all your others. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a guardian or tundra so I’m glad I wound up with one of each after the site generated the second _

Hanzo bit his lip before opening up the crossroads in another tab.

_ >In case you want to add some variety. _

 

* * *

 

“Oh, hey, Hanzo!”

Suddenly rousing from where he’d almost nodded off waiting for the kettle, Hanzo turned to the source of the noise and found Jesse leaning against the entryway to the kitchen. Jesse looked him up and down with a bit of a frown, taking in the sweatpants and loose shirt. “You not comin’ out tonight?”

Typically, Genji’s birthday was the one night Hanzo allowed himself to be dragged out without resistance or complaint. He couldn’t say _why_ Genji always wanted him there, but he always asked, and Hanzo always overcame his dislike of the loud clubs Genji favored in order to stave off some of the guilt that came from being so distant.

But this year – Hanzo shook his head. “I had a migraine last night that only went away a few hours ago. I offered to go, but my brother told me I’m not allowed.” It came out more bitter than he expected it to sound, considering he didn’t particularly enjoy going out.

Said brother poked his head into the kitchen doorway. “There you are, Jesse! We’re ready to go.”

“You all go ahead, I want to catch up with Hanzo a bit,” Jesse said, waving him off. “I’ll meet you there.”

“Uh, sure,” Genji said, hesitating in the doorframe. “Hanzo, is that – okay?”

With a shrug, Hanzo turned back to the kettle, trying to ignore his resentment at being told he shouldn’t go. “It’s fine. I already told you I feel better.” He knew how childish he sounded, but maybe Genji would ascribe it to lingering cantankerousness from the migraine.

“I’ll text you where we wind up, alright?” he heard Genji tell Jesse, followed by footsteps and the door closing on a small pack of partygoers.

The kettle clicked off, and Hanzo busied himself with pouring some water out and picking through tea tins in order to find something he wanted, settling on an oolong.

“Listen, if you’d rather I go, it’s not a problem.”

“No, it’s–” Hanzo closed his eyes, took a breath, and pushed away his annoyance at his brother, his migraine, and himself. He’d been meaning to message Jesse back anyway, but talking in person would be more convenient. Scaring him off now with his foul mood wouldn’t help either of them. “Would you like some tea?”

“If you’re sure you don’t mind.” Jesse still sounded cautious, like he wasn’t sure if staying was the right choice or not.

Disposable tea bags would be easiest, with a guest – Hanzo thought they might have a second infuser somewhere, but it had been lost to either the depths of the cabinets or his brother’s inability to return things to where he found them. While spooning the leaves into each paper bag, Hanzo took a moment to focus on his breathing in order to lessen the lingering ache along one side of his skull, finally handing one mug to Jesse once the bags were in and steeping.

“Why don’t we go sit on the couch?” Jesse suggested. “Got somethin’ to show you.”

Despite himself, Hanzo found himself guardedly curious. He led the way and settled at one end of the couch, but watched as Jesse, to his amusement, once again chose the middle cushion - not close enough to feel like he was crowding Hanzo’s personal space, but enough that Hanzo could fully appreciate how closely the breadth of Jesse’s frame compared to his.

Jesse dug his phone out of his pocket and started clicking around in it until he apparently found what he was looking for, and held it out in Hanzo’s direction. When Hanzo looked at the screen, he saw a lair homepage - Jesse’s, going by the familiar username at the top.

“Last row on the bottom,” Jesse said helpfully when he saw Hanzo’s uncertainty over where he was supposed to be looking. He waggled the phone in Hanzo’s direction, so Hanzo took it from him, zooming in on the row in question.

Five hatchlings in total occupied the lowest row - two Imps and three Guardians. From the similar shades, all cool blues and purples, Jesse had selected the match for Hanzo’s loaned dragon well. A few of the previews suggested some of them had inherited some genes, as well.

Just like that, any lingering traces of Hanzo’s bad mood were swept away.

“Turned out nice, didn’t they?” Jesse asked with an excited grin. His attitude was infectious; Hanzo had to bite back a smile of his own, still not over the novelty of having someone to _talk_ to about silly interests like this.

“They did,” Hanzo agreed, clicking on the first to survey each one closer. He first checked the genes and then frowned, bringing the phone closer to his face. “Hm.”

“What?”

Considering he hadn’t meant to say anything, and knowing how minor of a detail it was, Hanzo hesitated before continuing. “Their eye color doesn’t quite match their color scheme.”

Sure enough, Jesse let out a warm laugh. “I don’t know, I’m awful fond of brown eyes,” he said with a teasing note to his voice.

Hanzo glanced over at him, unsure if he was making fun of Hanzo criticizing his own eye color, but quickly turned his gaze back to the phone when he found Jesse already looking at him. “Is that why you picked Earth?”

With a shrug, Jesse settled back further into the couch, sipping his tea as he watched Hanzo swipe through the other hatchlings. “Seemed as good as any. Some of the other eye colors definitely didn’t appeal to me, but I saw it didn’t have any many people in it, and I do like an underdog.”

Inspection complete, he lingered on the last hatchling, an indigo Imperial. Most of his dragons tended towards truer blues, but...perhaps he would look into diversifying his clan. Hanzo shook himself and held out the phone towards Jesse so he could reach for his mug of tea on the side table.

“So, got any ideas for names?”

Hanzo blinked. “You want my help?”

“Well, sure,” Jesse said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. “They’re half yours. Besides, they’re gonna show up on your loaner’s offspring list, so I want to make sure you’re happy with the names.”

Hanzo hid his face behind the rim of his mug, resolutely blaming the sudden warmth in his chest on the large gulp of tea that followed.

The naming process took them the better part of the next hour and another a mug of tea each, even with help from the name randomizer for ideas. Once they were both satisfied with all five names, Jesse pocketed his phone and leaned further into the back of the sofa, balancing the mug on his knee. “Thanks for helpin’ out with that - hard to come up with that many names at once.”

“I’m aware,” Hanzo said dryly, thinking of his eighty-strong clan, most of which he’d bred himself. “I-” He accidentally cut himself off with a sudden inescapable yawn, which he hastily hid behind a hand.

“Shoot, Hanzo, you should’ve told me if you were tired,” Jesse said, brow furrowed in concern. “You said you had that migraine overnight, didn’t you? I’m guessin’ you didn’t get much sleep.”

Hanzo shook his head, trying to suppress another yawn.

“Well, I’d better not keep you up any longer, then,” Jesse said decisively, standing up.

Despite the truth to his words, Hanzo found himself wanting to protest as Jesse headed for the front entrance, gathering his things. But Jesse had spent enough time with him tonight when he was supposed to be out with his brother, so, with some reluctance, Hanzo followed him to the door.

Jesse reached for the doorknob, then hesitated for a moment before speaking. “I don’t know if this’ll help or not. But - all day today, Genji was tellin’ just about everyone who would listen about his birthday plans, and I think I heard him mention five times or so how his big brother was gonna be there. Kept talkin’ about how it isn’t normally your scene, but you go anyway for his sake.”

“I had hoped I wasn’t so obvious about not enjoying myself much,” Hanzo murmured.

“Point is, he wanted you there, was really excited for it. So if he told you to stay home instead...” Jesse shrugged. “Seems like that was him wantin’ you to feel better, not him wantin’ you to skip his party.”

As much as Hanzo had already figured that was the case, hearing it from an outside source did relieve the knot of tension he’d been carrying since he first started feeling ill, when he began worrying if he’d feel well enough to go out for his brother’s birthday.

“Enough meddlin’ from me, I’ll get out of your hair. Night, Hanzo,” Jesse said, with a faint smile.

Hanzo echoed the sentiment and locked the door behind him, letting out a deep sigh as he turned to get ready for bed.

It was not how he had expected the evening to go. But with the guilt and tension gone from his gut and replaced by warmth that he could no longer blame on tea, he did feel better, after all.

 

* * *

 

When Hanzo next pulled up the site the following day, he had a crossroads notification waiting for him. Unsurprising, considering Jesse had forgotten to return his loaned dragon the previous night. Once he opened it, however, he saw Jesse had also sent over the indigo hatchling.

With no one else in the room, Hanzo didn’t bother hiding the smile it brought to his face. He accepted the trade, pulling up a preview of what it would look like as an adult before accessing the messaging function.

_ >You could’ve kept all the hatchlings, if you wanted. I don’t mind. _

After that, he really did need to get back to working on the projects he had left unfinished the day before. Hanzo only logged on again in late evening, when he remembered to refill the cauldron with a lengthy brew before he turned in for the night. Once again, there was a message waiting for him.

_ <<I saw your face when you got to that one. Consider it thanks for the loan :) _

It was just a drawing of a dragon filled in with a computer-generated color scheme. But - Hanzo carried that same warm satisfaction to sleep that night.

 

* * *

 

A burst of noise from the front door sent Hanzo swearing under his breath and chopping as fast as he safely could. It seemed today was his day for losing track of time – first the day’s work had gotten away from him, with Hanzo only realizing he could’ve stopped working hours earlier when his stomach made its protests impossible to ignore, and _then_ he forgot what time Genji said he’d be back. From the rumble of voices from the entryway, he wasn’t the only one to arrive, and Hanzo didn’t want any of his brother’s numerous friends seeing him like this.

He was nearly done with the first half of the onion when Genji breezed through the kitchen, and managed to keep his head ducked down to avoid any unwelcome comments on his current appearance. Wiping his eyes on his sleeve, he added what he had so far into the pan and then started adding the bell peppers he had already sliced to give himself a break.

Only a moment later, however, the creaking of the floor heralded another newcomer.

“Thought I heard someone in here.”

Oh, _no_. Under any other circumstances, he’d be glad to see Jesse again - both his brother and Jesse had been working long hours recently, Genji behind the bar and Jesse back in the kitchens. As a result, Jesse hadn’t visited for several weeks, leaving their conversations restricted to messaging. Hanzo ducked his head further down and offered up a mumbled hello, hoping that Jesse was just stopping in for a drink.

To his misfortune, Jesse approached anyway. “Meant to message you back, but Genji invited me over so I figured – wait, you alright?”

Hanzo sighed in defeat. “Yes, it’s just the onions,” he said with a gesture at the cutting board, offering a wry smile to show he was alright despite the redness around his eyes.

“Here, I got this, they don’t hit me that bad,” Jesse said, rolling up his sleeves. Bemused, Hanzo watched as Jesse quickly washed his hands and started in on the second half of the onion. Sure enough, only the faintest hint of a sheen appeared at the corner of his eyes. “Benefits of a few years as a line cook,” he explained, keeping an eye on his work.

“...Thank you,” Hanzo said, still a bit taken aback but turning back to the pan. At least it was just Jesse that had accompanied his brother home - it didn’t sound like there were any other people congregating in the living room, and if someone had to see him like this, at least it was someone he knew.

Besides, he wasn’t too proud not to be grateful for being able to avoid an unpleasant task, and his unhappy stomach appreciated the help in speeding things along. Thanks to his brother, he had a rather ridiculous number of vegetables to get ready for the sheet pan.

“You goin’ vegetarian or somethin’?” Jesse asked with a nod to the rest of the kitchen, sounding amused. In his defense, the counters were doing their level best to prove his point, filled as they were with cauliflower, squash, sweet potato, and carrots overflowing from the bags that held them.

Hanzo sighed in defeat and started in on the zucchini. “No, although we might have to just to keep up with all of this. Genji–” He turned around and checked that his brother was still safely occupied in his room. Even though it appeared Genji was out of earshot, Hanzo still lowered his voice slightly, confiding, “Genji has a crush on one of the vendors at the farmer’s market.”

A delighted grin appeared on Jesse’s face. “Aw, does he?”

“It’s been five weeks of – this!” Hanzo gestured to the counters full of vegetables. “He goes for hours at a time and when he comes back, it’s with all these bags of produce from the greenhouses. _Reusable_ bags. I made the mistake of asking why he bought them and he went on for fifteen minutes about how this man has inspired him to _do his part_.”

“That so.” Jesse hummed as he picked up an eggplant. “These washed?”

“Hm? Oh, yes.”

Hanzo watched as Jesse slid the finished onion onto the pan and washed his hands of the residue, then shook himself and resumed chopping the zucchini. “When he brought these back, he started talking about which nutrient profiles would best go together. What does that even _mean_? They’re vegetables.”

“Well...maybe he does actually find it interestin’,” Jesse said, with a strange note of forced cheer in his voice. “Could be he got into it on account of bein’ interested in this vendor, but now he’s actually into it.”

With a scoff, Hanzo said, “He’s never cared about food before in his life. If I hadn’t learned how to cook, he’d still be eating takeout for every meal.”

“I mean, I never was one for dragons, even as a kid.”

Confused by the non-sequitur, Hanzo paused his chopping to glance over at Jesse. Eyes fixed firmly on the still-overflowing bag of produce, Jesse continued, “Sometimes you get into things because someone else likes ‘em, but it doesn’t mean you can’t genuinely like it once you learn more about it. Just seems like that might be the case with Genji and this vendor, is all.”

Hanzo set down the knife and turned so he could lean his back against the counter, although Jesse still didn’t look up from the cutting board. Tilting his head, he asked, “Why did you ask me about the game in the first place, if you weren’t already interested?”

Jesse ducked his head. “I like browser games just fine, and when I saw you playin’ it looked kinda fun. Besides, I said it was the dragons I wasn’t initially interested in. Didn’t say I wasn’t interested in _you_.”

Hanzo paused to absorb the implications of that phrasing and decided that it was unambiguous enough that he hardly even needed to throw caution to the wind. “Did you and Genji have any plans for today?” he asked abruptly.

“Uh, nothin’ in particular. Just hangin’ out. Why?” Jesse darted a look over at Hanzo, and yes, the nervous up and down motion to his eyes solidified Hanzo’s confidence.

“Would you like to go get dinner with me instead?”

“Just - to clarify,” Jesse said after a few seconds of silence. “You mean-”

“I mean as a date,” Hanzo replied, sounding more confident than he felt. “You are not the only one interested.”

A wide, incredulous smile broke out on Jesse’s face. “Sounds good to me.” He looked back down at the countertops full of chopped vegetables suddenly, as if just remembering they had been in the middle of prepping food. “These a no-go, then?”

“I’ll text Genji on the way. He bought them, he _didn’t_ chop them - he can deal with cooking them,” Hanzo said firmly.

That startled a laugh out of Jesse. “Sounds even better, if it means we can spend more time wherever you had in mind.”

“I’m glad we agree,” Hanzo said, daring to steer Jesse towards the door.

He’d missed this back and forth over the last few weeks, when they had to rely on messaging. And now that he not only had Jesse there in person, but leaning tentative and warm into his side - Hanzo looked forward to making up the difference.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Gentle concrit is welcome.
> 
> Come hang out on tumblr at pixelhanzo!


End file.
